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Sainsbury’s to provide Welcome Break

By Fiona Briggs

Revamped Welcome Break services

Sainsbury’s is extending the reach of its convenience brand with a pilot store at the Birchanger Green Welcome Break services on the M11.

According to Jonathan Lawson, director of operations at Sainsbury’s Convenience, the store could be the beginning of a travel strategy for the brand.

The convenience store, at junction 8 near Stansted, opened on 21 September and predominantly stocks Sainsbury’s premium own label brand, Taste the Difference.

Lawson announced the pilot at Insight’s The Future of International Convenience Retailing Conference in London on 20 September.

Speaking about the development of Sainsbury’s convenience business, he said: “Our estate continues to grow. We have 300 stores within convenience serving a variety of needs in transient and neighbourhood locations but there are other areas of the market we may wish to be in. We are very happy in city and neighbourhood locations but perhaps we can begin to develop a travel strategy.”

Sainsbury’s link up with Welcome Break brings another high street brand to Britain’s motorway services network, following Marks & Spencer’s launch of its Simply Food brand at Moto services in 2003.

Welcome Break, meanwhile, is currently investing in its network of 24 service stations plus the petrol forecourt sites it operates in partnership with Shell.

Also speaking at the Insight event, Nabil Subuh, director of retail at the Welcome Group, said: “We are looking at partnerships and we are very proud that we have got the [Sainsbury’s] trial going on.”

Welcome Break, which was sold by Granada to investment group Investcorp in 1997, is modernising its estate. In the last two years it has completed 29 shop re-fits, rebuilt 14 Shell forecourt sites, launched its own brand of coffee, Primo, and strengthened its ties with KFC.

It is also rebranding with a new logo in a modern colour palette. According to Subuh, the white swan logo, launched in 1986, is now a “dead duck”.

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